Oregon Public School Report Cards
New Report Card System
Oregon rolled out a new school report card system in October 2013. It not only shows parents how the test scores at their kids’ school stacks up against others in the state, it shows how those scores compare to schools similar to theirs — in terms of demographics. At a glance, you can see if your kids’ school is doing better or worse than others with similar numbers of poor children, kids with disabilities and those for whom English is a second language.
In the new construct, the progress all students make on math and reading tests is given far more weight than the number of students who meet or exceed the state standards.
The goals of the redesign were to:
- More accurately reflect student learning and growth
- Incorporate key measures of college and career readiness
- Align the report card with district’s achievement compacts
- Make the Report Cards more user friendly and accessible
Elementary and middle schools are rated primarily by how far they helped individual students progress on state reading and math tests from year to year, with extra weight given to their progress with low-income, minority, second-language and “special ed” students. High schools are judged largely by their graduation rates and student growth on tests, again with extra weight given to their success with historically lagging groups.
Oregon released its first newly designed report cards in October 2013 after a long effort to modernize a clunky old design and comply with federal requirements for accountability. The state now uses a Level 1 through 5 rating system, designed like a modified bell curve, to grade nearly 1,200 public schools. Level 4 is the largest category, encompassing about 560 schools that are in the middle or better; Level 5 represents the exemplary top 10 percent; and Levels 1-3 represent the lagging and failing schools.
Schools are rated primarily on how much they improve individual students’ reading and math scores from year to year (“growth”) and, for high schools, their graduation rate. How many students pass state reading and math tests (“achievement”) also factors in.
In each area, they are rated as one of five levels. Level 5 = best, Level 1 = worst. Schools get extra scrutiny for the performance of a “subgroup” of their students, those who are low-income, special education, Latino, African American, Native American, Pacific Islander or learning English as a second language.
If a school does not test at least 95 percent of students in every student group, the overall rating gets lowered by one tier.
Elementary and middle school ratings are based 75 percent on student gains on state tests and 25 percent on passing rates. High school ratings are based 50 percent on graduation rates, 30 percent on student gains and just 20 percent on how many students pass state tests.
State officials also designed the rating system to give most schools one of the top two ratings. Only about 45 percent of schools can, and did, earn any of the bottom three ratings in the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years. That is partly due to a federal requirement that the worst five percent of schools get the lowest performance rating and the next ten percent of schools with the worst performance get the second-lowest rating. The Oregon Department of Education also chose not to give the middle ranking of three on a scale of 1 to 5 to any school whose performance was not clearly below average.
For more information on the new report cards visit: http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=3881.
Where to Find The Report Cards
The State of Oregon Department of Education has posted the report cards at their website. You can view school or district report for the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years at:
The Oregonian (state’s largest newspaper) at their website has a online reference guide where visitors can search by a number of variables to obtain test scores, federal ratings, school demographics, staffing, and finances:
Data is available by county, district or statewide in a CSV (comma separated value) format for earlier school years (starting with the 2002-2003 school year) at:
Three Major Reports
Each fall, Oregon releases three major reports on public schools:
- Oregon school report cards
- Student achievement on state tests in reading, writing, mathematics, and science
- Federal Adequate Yearly Progress report required under No Child Left Behind
Of the three reports, the school report cards offer the most complete look at how schools are performing because they include a more thorough review of school quality. Included in Oregon’s school report cards is information on student test performance, school improvement, school readiness, academic support, academic enrichment, rating details, etc.
The overall state rating is intended to summarize this school’s particular successes and challenges. It is based on a combination of up to five factors. Three of these factors come from standardized test scores in reading and math: student achievement, student growth, and the growth of underserved subgroups. High schools are also rated on the overall graduation rate for the school and the graduation rates of underserved subgroups.
If you would like more information about how the rating are determine, the Oregon Department of Education has two documents available to review:
Oregon Report Card History
Oregon law (ORS 329.105) requires that the Oregon Department of Education issue performance reports for public schools. These performance reports shall include school ratings for:
- Statewide Assessment Results
- Student Attendance
- Student Dropout Rates
Report cards are released in the fall each year for the previous school year. Report cards are issued for each Oregon school district as well as individual schools.
Over the years there have been many changes to the Oregon report card system. Oregon school report cards were first issued in January 2000 with the rating formulas and rules remaining largely unchanged during the first three years. Extensive revisions in the formula were reflected in the report cards released in January 2003. Additional changes in displays were incorporated for January 2004 to bring the report card into compliance with requirements o f the No Child Left Behind Act.
Federal vs. State Report Cards
The annual Oregon school report cards differs from the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) ratings. The state judges schools on average student performances, while the federal rating scrutinize individual groups such as limited English, minority, and special education students. If one of those groups doesn’t meet performance targets, the school is downgraded.
Two websites for information about NCLB:
- For further information, visit the US Department of Education’s website at No Child Left Behind. The site includes a “Parents Guide”, newsletter subscription, etc.
- Learning First, an non-profit education organization, has published a document that explains the law. This document is fairly easy to read and understand.
Portland Monthly Magazine Guide to Schools
In their December issue each year, the Portland Monthly magazine reports on over 600 schools in the metro area and make what they referred to as a “crib sheet.” The sheet gives school rankings, test scores, and statistics that will help you evaluate the schools without the need for in-depth study.
Included in the document are Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, average number of students per grade, and Oregon Statewide Assessment (OSA), etc. They track 11 different variables.
2014-2015 School Year Report Cards
Oregon issued performance reports on 1,200 schools on October 13, 2015 providing fresh insight into which schools helped their students gain the most academic ground.
Oregon’s school report cards don’t have overall grades for local schools and districts this year. But there is new information in them.
Federal education officials allowed Oregon to drop overall ratings for this year, because of the switch last spring to new standardized tests. Lawmakers encouraged the move, in part due to the large numbers of students who opted not to take the Smarter Balanced exams.
The report cards give a more sophisticated, more meaningful look at school performance than test scores alone because they compare each school to schools with the most similar student populations. More importantly, the report cards reveal how much each school helped its students grow academically, given where the students started a year or years earlier.
The Oregonian/OregonLive came up with an easy way to compare key overall performance metrics for each school. Color-coded, searchable online charts show at a glance how a school’s proficiency rates in English or math stacks up against that at similar schools. The online displays also show how each school’s typical student growth in reading and math last school year compares to growth for students with similar test score histories in the rest of the state.
The successes of Tigard-Tualatin’s elementary schools suggests they might have something to teach the rest of the state. David Douglas had two middle schools, Ron Russell and Alice Ott, with outstanding results. Beaverton showed strong results, from schools in its highest-income neighborhoods to schools in neighborhoods with the greatest educational challenges.
Source: “How did your local school measure up on Oregon’s school report cards?” by Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian/OregonLive, October 17, 2015.
2013-2014 School Year Report Cards
Ratings for all of Oregon’s public schools were released on October 9, 2014 showing some of the state’s large districts are faring better than others.
Salem-Keizer, Beaverton, Bend-La Pine and Medford stand out among Oregon’s largest districts. Those four districts have many more above “average schools,” compared to schools with similar demographics, than are “average” or “below average.” A handful of Salem-Keizer schools rose to “above average” after being among the lowest-performing in Oregon a few years ago. School improvement grants from the state likely helped. Other large districts, like Portland, North Clackamas and Eugene, are similar to the state as a whole. A handful of Salem-Keizer schools rose to “above average” after being among the lowest-performing in Oregon a few years ago.
A handful of Salem-Keizer schools rose to “above average” after being among the lowest-performing in Oregon a few years ago. School improvement grants from the state likely helped.
Other large districts, like Portland, North Clackamas and Eugene, are similar to the state as a whole.
The State of Oregon Department of Education has posted the report cards at their website. You can view school or district report cards for the 2013-2014 school years at Oregon School Report Cards. You can also obtain the report cards at the The Oregonian (state’s largest newspaper) at their website that is easy to read.